This invention relates to a bidirectional retaining clutch, and more particularly to a bidirectional retaining clutch which is connected to a rotator such as a revolving shaft of a pivoted cover, a revolving shaft of a pivoted door, a door sheave of a sliding door or the like to not only stop revolution of the rotator in one direction at any desired position while preventing reverse revolution of the rotator but permit revolution of the rotator in the other direction when torque of a predetermined level or more in the other direction is applied thereto.
Conventionally, there has been used a retaining device of the cam type for the purpose of causing a pivoted or rotated component (hereinafter referred to as "rotated object") such as, for example, a pivoted lid or cover vertically pivotally moved about a revolving shaft which is used in a personal computer of the lap top type, a piano or a closet; a pivoted door; a door sheave of a sliding door traveling on a slanting rail; or the like to be stopped at any desired position during the opening or closing operation. The conventional cam-type retaining device is generally constructed in such a manner that a cam stops movement of the rotated object when it is opened by a predetermined angle and subsequent closing of the rotated object is started by lifting it a little, so that the rotated object may be downward pivotally moved.
Unfortunately, the cam-type retaining device is adapted to stop movement of the rotated object only when it is opened to a predetermined position, to thereby fail to stop the movement at any desired position.
In order to avoid the disadvantage, it would be considered to provide the device with a one-way clutch to retain the rotated object at any desired position. The arrangement of the one-way clutch permits the rotated object to be retained at any desired position during the operation of opening it; however, it fails to close the rotated object when it is forced in a closed direction from the retained position, because it is kept retained. Therefore, the arrangement of the one-way clutch on the conventional cam-type retaining device requires to connect, to the one-way clutch, a release device which is adapted to cause the one-way clutch to be forcibly rotated when the rotated object is moved in the closed direction.